I gave my midterm today for the course I am teaching, Race, Class, and Gender. I cannot believe the term is HALFWAY done already! So I thought I would reflect on what I've learned about teaching so far (I did teach last summer as well, but this time I am working with more soc majors and a larger class):
1) I love, love, love it! I think I'm definitely in the right field in terms of work satisfaction:) I was working on my lecture the other day and was actually sad that I had to stop working because I enjoy putting together a good class. It is so exciting to see my students interested in sociology and applying it to the world around them. I glanced through their exams today and it was so great to see that they are able to write about major issues in our nation like ecoomic inequality and racial inequality and to use current research to support their ideas. Of course, that is my goal setting up the course, but to know that they will leave my class understanding these social forces more than they did when they came in the door is awesome!
2) I have a lot to learn! Pretty much after every class I have a bunch of mental notes about things I should or shouldn't do next time around. Luckily this doesn't get me down, but just motivates me to make it better next time. It will just be nice when I've taught for 30 years and I actually DO know everything (right???). Also, even though my students sometimes ask questions that I don't know the answer to, I'm just glad they are engaged and curious, and continue to ask questions (so they must not have given up on me completely as a source of knowledge:).
3) I try to cram too much into each lecture. It is really hard to decide what things to focus on and what to just let go. People have devoted their lives to research in all of these areas, and their findings are so fascinating and important that it feels like an injustice to NOT tell my students about them. Unfortunately, that can result in lectures with too many concepts or too much info, and not enough time to digest- this is something I am working on.
4) I lucked out with my students. They are really engaged and take part in the conversations and are willing to share their personal experiences as well as their opinions. I've actually had to learn to find ways to keep the class moving at a good pace! I am working on trying to find a good balance between letting the students do their own reflection and conversation, and taking the conversation as a teaching opportunity. On the one hand, I want to let them participate in their own learning, but at the same time, I do want to keep the conversations informed and based in sociological research or theory.
5) Writing a test is hard. We'll see how they do on this test, but it is tough to write questions that aren't too easy, but aren't too hard. I feel like they were concentrating throughout the test, so I'm hoping that it required a degree of studying to do well, and they seemed to have done decently based on those I looked at, so hopefully it means it was manageable. We'll see! It is funny because as the teacher, it seems like everything is easy (because you obviously know everything you are teaching), so it's hard to know what an average student can recall...
Overall, I think the term has gone as well as I could have hoped as my first class at the U (knock on wood). No major issues, they seem to be interested and engaged for the 2.5 hours for the most part (some days are more interesting than others), and I feel like the class has a good participatory feel to it. Let's hope it continues that way for the 2nd half!
Until next time,
Kirsten
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